At the end of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) executive meeting in Lagos on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 the NOC decided to brief the press on the December 2009 Executive Committee Elections of the NOC.

Such briefing under normal and honest circumstances was supposed to provide the NOC an opportunity to brief Nigerians on the proposed elections and its importance to the Nigeria Olympic movement. It would have also provided an excellent opportunity to give an account of its stewardship to Nigerians. However, and sadly too, the committee deliberately allowed such opportunity to elude it. So in the absence of any tangible achievements to tell Nigerians, it decided to fabricate lies on its relationship with the National Sports Commission (NSC) and to find ways to perpetuate itself in power by inventing lies on the eligibility or not of Engineer Sani Mohammed Ndanusa, who is the Minister and Chairman, National Sports Commission to contest for the Presidency of the NOC.

For the purpose of specificity, the NOC in its briefing claimed that Engineer Sani Mohammed Ndanusa does not meet the statutory requirements for the position of the president of the NOC because he has not served up to four years in an executive position or at the level of Commission of an International Federation, Continental Federation or the CGF as required. It claimed that Engineer Ndanusa was elected as the Vice President of the Confederation of African Tennis only on the 20th of June, 2007.

This claim is a calculated falsehood to prevent Engineer Sani Ndanusa from contesting the presidential election because, he has been the 1st Vice President of the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) for more than six years having been in this position since 2003.  Any one who is in doubt should consult CAT Website www.cattenis.com. Or write to CAT, in Tunisia.He has also been the President of the Nigerian Tennis Federation since 2002.  The constitution of NOC only requires that a candidate for the presidency must have served for not less than four years. He has served the Nigerian Tennis Federation creditably for more than seven years.

Another attempt the NOC made to perpetuate itself in power is to illegally suspend the Nigeria Tennis Federation from NOC activities on account of the last NTF election.  The NOC however does not have the power to suspend any of the Federations including the NTF from its activities. The NOC constitution clearly states that it is the Executive Board of the NOC that has the power by resolution to suspend from the NOC any member.  Even at this, the Executive Board is required to, after due enquiry, recommend the expulsion of such a member to the annual general meeting.

The NOC cannot therefore decide in its executive committee meeting to suspend a member. See article 13.8 and 13.9 of the constitution. In the case of Engineer Sani Ndanusa's election as the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation, one will want the NOC to tell Nigerians if there is any part of the national Federation Election Guidelines that says that individual Federations cannot adopt a candidate for election into a position.

Is it not true that athletes discovered during the 16th National Sports Festival in Kaduna are being groomed for International Sports Competitions like the commonwealth? Is it also not true that the NSC has secured a training site for Nigerian athletes in England for the 2012 Olympic Games? For the records, however, most of the Federations have been training since the beginning of 2009 at home and abroad. A few examples will suffice here. The Badminton Federation among other competitions has been to the All Africa Senior Championships in Kenya, the Federation has also taken part in competitions in Mauritius, India and Nigeria. The Swimming Federation has been to the FINA World Swimming Championships in Rome and the FINA Swimming congress also in Italy. It has also done age group championship in Nigeria. The Taekwondo Federation took part in the 9th Africa Championship in Cameroun, the CENSAD Union Taekwondo Championship in Copenhagen, Sweden and other training proprammes at home. The Weight lifting Federation has been to the Olympic weight lifting qualifiers and other competitions.

The NSC funds the participation of Nigeria contingents including the NOC in all international sporting competitions. How much has the NOC in the last eight years contributed towards the funding of these competitions? Yet in the past four years, the international Olympic Committee (IOC) has given the Association of National Olympic committee of Africa (ANOCA) where the NOC belongs, the sum of 24 million dollars. What did the NOC do with its own share of the money? The Nigerian Premier League (NPL) is less than four years old. It now has its own headquarters. The NOC is more than 20 years old yet it has no building it can call its own. It still squats in the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos and is expecting the Government to build an headquarter for it. In other countries things are different. The Olympic committees there contribute to sports development with funds raised in the private sector and the international Olympic Committee. Nigeria's case is different.

There is really need for a change in the leadership of the NOC. It needs a President that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the organized private sector. It needs to key into current positive developments in Nigerian sports.

Take a look at the performance of the Minister of sports, Engineer Sani Ndanusa.  Within a short period, he has developed a solid document for sports development in Nigeria. This document has been accepted by the Federal Government and adopted by the National Economic Council. Just recently he put together the most successful Conference of African Minister of Sports in Abuja; a sports policy that was considered and accepted by the National council on sports and approved by the Federal Executive Council. He has looked at sports development in Nigeria and found out that it has a foundation problem. He therefore developed the Community sports development initiative which is aimed at developing sports facilities at the grassroots through the Community Sports Development Centres. It is common knowledge that the programme has started building these centres and that the states and local governments are in the fore front of ensuring that there is at least a centre in each local government of the Federation.